Oxtail Stew Served in Edible Bowls With Edible Spoons

Oxtail meat, as the name implies, is the tail of an ox (or a cow). It’s a wonderful cut of beef, flavoursome, reach in collagen and protein. When cooked properly, it will fall off the bone.
One problem with oxtail, for me at least, is that it’s incredibly fatty and I like to remove as much fat as possible. This fat removal process makes this recipe a little bit more elaborate, but it’s worth it in the end.

My grandmother always used to say that a recipe is merely a suggestion and doesn’t have to be followed step-by-step to turn out great. I highly recommend adapting this attitude, it makes things easier if you are missing one ingredient and don’t want to go shopping or if you have to substitute ingredients due to allergies. If you want to reduce the amount of veggies in the stew- go for it, if you want to use different veggies altogether-go for it too. I like to add a lot of veggies to my stew to create one-pot meal and not have to bother preparing any side dishes. I also like to dice my veggies and shred the meat instead of serving it on the bone. That way, you get a bit of everything with each spoonful.

As a bonus I added a recipe for edible bowls and spoons, bowls are made with hot water pastry, which is flaky and buttery, sturdy enough to hold the hot stew, but soft enough to nibble on.

4-6 portions:

For slow cooked meat:

1. 2.5 lbs oxtail meat
2. few handfuls of flour for dusting
3. 2 T oil for frying
4. large onion
5. 2 carrots
6. 2/3-1 cup red wine
7. 3-4 bay leaves
8. small handful of dried mushrooms
9. 1 beef pot
10. 2 tsp dry rosemary (or few fresh stalks)
11. 2 tsp dry thyme (or few fresh stalks)
12. 1 tsp celery salt
13. 2 tbs salt

For the stew:

1. 1 lbs mushrooms, cut into quarters
2. 1 onion, diced
3. 2 garlic cloves, minced
4. 2 large carrots, diced
5. 2 large potatoes, diced
6. 2 medium courgettes,diced
7. 1 red pepper, diced
8. 1 can chopped tomatoes
9. 2 tbs concentrated tomato paste
10. 1/4-1/2 cup flour for thickening

1. Pat the meat with kitchen towels until dry
2. Coat each piece of oxtail in flour, all sides, top and bottom.
3. Fry for 2-3 min on each side, until each piece of meat is uniformly browned.

1. Peel and cut an onion into large pieces.
2. Either peel or scrub the carrots clean and cut into 1 inch pieces.
3. Once meat is fried, transfer it to a large, oven-safe pot and fry the onions in the pan, using the remaining fat for a few minutes.
4. Add the onions to the pot, pour the wine, add carrots, herbs, salt, mushrooms, bay leaves and a beef pot.
5. Add water to cover the meat (the water level should be about 1 inch above the meat).
6. Give it a stir to distribute everything evenly.

If you don't have a big enough pot to fit all meat pieces in one container, divide the ingredients and use two pots.

Cover the pot with a lid and put in a preheated oven. Cook at 300F for minimum 3 hours.

Mine took 4.5 hours to cook. The rule of thumb is to cook it for at least 3 hours and then check every hour if it's soft enough. Properly cooked meat will be tender, not chewy at all and will fall apart easily. It can take as little as 3 hours, or as long as 6 hours before it's ready.

Once meat is cooked, remove it from the pot and transfer to a plate. Let it cool down before picking the meat from the bones. Use your hands to do it, there are coin-size pieces of cartilage that have to be removed and it's best to do it by hand.

While the meat is cooling, you have to strain the liquid and skim the fat. I like to do it by pouring the broth through a set of sieves. First sieve removes large chunks of vegetables and most of the herbs. After liquid and solids are separated, I like to leave the broth out to cool down and let the fat solidify on the top a little bit. Once fat is visible on the surface, I pass the liquid through a second sieve, with much smaller holes, which removes more impurities and most of the fat, leaving behind pure, clear broth.

Even though flour was added to the liquid earlier, the broth is still very much viscous while hot, so next step is to thicken it with flour.

This is what happens when you let the broth cool down in the fridge. It turns into this gelatinous mess. While off-putting, it's completely normal, since oxtail is reach in collagen.

To thicken the broth, whisk 1/4-1/2 cup flour with enough cold water to turn it into a thin paste. Add flour mixture to the broth and whisk well. The mount of flour added depends on your preference, I like a very thick stew, so I added 1/2 cup of flour,if you want yours to be more liquid-y, add less flour.

Finally we are ready to assembly the stew ingredients.

Saute diced onion in a glug of oil, add mushrooms and garlic and fry for 5 min. Add tomato paste and transfer the mixture to a large pot. Add shredded meat, broth, diced vegetables and a can of tomatoes. Stir well.

Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes.

Serve on it's own or with some crusty bread.

Made with hot water pastry, same type of pastry used for meat pies, but baked empty and longer, to create an edible, thick shell to hold your stew. It will degrade faster than plastic and can be eaten along the stew.

This is enough to make 4 bowls or cups, each about 1-1.5 cup volume:

• 2 cups white or wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup water
• 1tsp salt + 2 tsp dried herbs

Mix flour with salt and herbs. Melt butter in a small saucepan, add water and bring to a boil. Pour the water-butter mixture into the flour container and mix with a fork until it comes together. Tip the dough onto the surface and knead it until it comes together and creates a smooth ball. The dough will be warm, but not hot, so you will be able to handle it with ease. It has to be moulded while the dough is still warm. Divide the ball into 4 pieces, flatten into a thick disc and mould it onto oven-safe containers. I used a small metal bowl and tall, wide drinking glass to create cups and bowls. To make sure the dough won't stick, I rubbed the containers with butter before moulding the dough.

Once moulded, put the containers in the fridge to firm up (30-40min), then bake

Bake at 400F for 15 min, then gently remove the bowls from the containers and bake them on their own for further 15 min.

For 8 spoons:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 tsp salt + herbs and powdered paprika
• 1/3c + 2tbs water

Mix flour with salt and add water. Mix with a fork and knead until a dough ball is formed. It's a very tough dough, and it's meant to be like that. Too much water and spoons will be too soft.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 4-5 mm thickness, cut spoon shapes out of the dough and mould it onto spoons. Press the dough into the spoons and prick them all over with a fork, to prevent the dough from raising too much in the oven. I used regular metal spoons and Chinese soup spoons, the latter making the dough spoons more deep, perfect for holding liquids.

Bake at 400F for 30 min.

I tested how long they can last before going soggy and it's between 40 and 60 min. I used one to eat a bowl of hot soup and by the end (15 min) the spoon was still hard. I was able to bite into it after 20-30 min of soaking and it was still cracker-like hard.